Fished Lake Okeechobee with my good friends Sam Griffin and Dave Burkhardt. This is Sam with a Big O bass that he caught on an experimental topwater. Photos include manatee, gator, Everglades snail kite carrying an apple snail, great blue heron, blooming water hyacinths, and my friend Dave with a Big O bass, as well as me with the 8-5.

Lure maker Sam Griffin caught this small bass on a protoype topwater that he was field testing. He hasn't given it a name yet. As to colors: "They can be anything as long as they are black and white," he says.

Those are blooms on water hyacinths. Because of their beauty, you can see why they were brought to this country decades ago for water gardens. Since escaping ornamental gardens, however, they have become a giant problem for many of our southern waterways. They grow and spread quickly, blocking sunlight from reaching beneficial submergent vegetation below. In the Big O, manatees love to browse on them.